Sounds like the OP lived in the Tenderloin... I'm a 21 year old student and not so well off that lives close to the Tenderloin too and I've been here over a year and don't have any complaints. The weather is awesome, the public library is amazing, Ruby Skye which is like 2 blocks away has awesome concerts, the people are friendly enough and leave me alone when I'm not in the mood to interact, the bums I see around are far from aggressive. Quite polite and friendly actually (especially if you consider how much their lives must suck). Granted its an expensive place to live especially if you live downtown but if you take the time you can find places to shop that make your expenses close to what you would spend in most other places anyway. I really like this city!
My only problem with the city is that I find it hard to socialize since I don't go to bars and clubs that often. My school is filled with people I don't really care much for and all the hot girls are undergrads. But then again this is probably my fault since I'm not so social to begin with...

I know several people who work at Google. A few years ago, in order to reduce costs, they tried to reduce the number of free cereals from something like a dozen to less than 10, and they wanted to stop stocking Smart Water. There was a huge uproar, so nothing happened. That's kind of like CA in a bottle.

I know several people who work at Google. A few years ago, in order to reduce costs, they tried to reduce the number of free cereals from something like a dozen to less than 10, and they wanted to stop stocking Smart Water. There was a huge uproar, so nothing happened. That's kind of like San Francisco in a bottle.

--Andre

Fixed for accuracy, in my opinion. It really is a bizarre place, sometimes, with its sequestration from the rest of the world.

I'll say this for a positive attribute of San Francisco - it's cheap to fly to Asia, relative to most of the U.S.

No, but this presupposes something sacred about opinions. I get that they're all 'subjective' but honestly if someone told you that he thought the Ford Focus was a nicer car than the Aston Martin Vanquish, you'd have the right to call that a Fail.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manton

I take it you have never seen Phoenix or the Inland Empire or the San Fernando Valley?

Phoenix once when I was a kid, but I have very little memory of it. What I know about Silicon Valley comes to me by a friend of mine who works at Google (lives in Mountain View) and tells me about the daily sadnesses that accompany suburban hell.